Keyboard failure

I have a Dell PC with a USB keyboard. Last night when I turned the computer on, I noticed it said keyboard failure, then when I got to the logon screen I couldn't enter my password.

What I've tried:
--I took the keyboard to another computer and it works there. Also, the mouse works normally.
--I pressed F8 on startup and tried last known good configuration, it didn't help.
--I pressed F8 on startup, chose Safe Mode, then did a system restore to a week ago, it didn't help.

I've looked around a lot this morning on help boards and couldn't find anything quite the same as this, though the answer is probably out there. I've seen recommendations about reloading drivers, doing a registry edit, and changing the BIOS. I wouldn't do either of the last two without a very specific reason and instructions since I don't want to cause more problems than I fix.

Does anyone have an idea what is going on, or what I should try next to fix this?

 

Hi,

It has nothing to do with Windows so no need to change anything there.

It might be a setting in BIOS, which is supposed to recognize your keyboard and is the "program" that is giving you the error message, but I'm unsure why settings would have changed there.

How are you eventually getting into Windows on that machine? Are you using a different keyboard?

 

Wow thanks for the fast reply!

The only way I was able to get into Windows was to start in Safe mode, but even then I didn't test if the keyboard was working because I just used the mouse to do a system restore. Now I wish I had tested the keyboard before doing that.

Do you think I should check the BIOS? I've never done anything with that but from what I've seen online you press delete during startup to get there? If there is something specific I should look for I will do that.

 

On a Dell entering BIOS is F2 during the DELL screen. Give your model number and I'll take a look to see if I can find the basic BIOS options. The option you'd be looking for is something like USB (maybe legacy) support. Just check that it is set to ON.

You said you tried the keyboard on another computer. Did that computer also have a USB keyboard you could try booting the Dell with to see if it also gives the error? The error is just BIOS warning you that it did not find a keyboard and thus you will have a problem trying to interact with your PC.

 

Well I called home and my wife told me the keyboard was working fine this morning. I have no idea why it decided to not work last night. So I'm really sorry to have wasted your time. Maybe it is intermittent and the problem will come back :cry but I hope not.

Thanks!